Cade Cunningham’s turnovers are the result of past demons

Let’s start with the obvious. Cade Cunningham has a turnover problem. The Detroit Pistons point guard started the season with a 5.6 average in his first five games, including 9 against Cleveland, 7 against Boston and 5 in his last outing against Miami.

It is also not a new trend. Last season, Cade averaged 5.3 turnovers through his first four games and maintained an average of more than four through late November before tightening the season at a more respectable 3.4 per game over 62 appearances.

In this first part of the season, Cade is fourth in the league in turnovers per game, trailing only James Harden, Trae Young (though both guys are averaging over 10 assists per game, while Cade hovers around 7.5) and LaMelo Ball. . In short, while Cade is second to none as a scorer, these turnover issues continue to haunt the team and Cunningham individually.

Full disclosure, I think the turnover numbers can sometimes be a bit overestimated, especially when put in the context of usage rate and role, missed errors and the like. But high numbers are still high no matter which spreadsheet you look at.

But what causes this bug?

No one bears the scars of the past three seasons of futility and ineptitude more than the Oklahoma State product. The face of a new era, marketed as the savior after being drafted ahead of everyone else in 2021, Cunningham was immediately thrust into a leadership role on a team that was coming off a season so dismal they weren’t even invited to Disney to have fun in the NBA Bubble for a few weeks.

Cunningham was immediately handed the keys to the franchise, allowed to make mistakes and explore his game, and his improvements during his rookie season were a rare bright spot as the team racked up 23 wins.

Fast forward three seasons, and we now have a star point guard averaging almost 26 points and 7 assists per night. He made his money playing on some of the worst NBA teams of all time. The problem is that dysfunction is all he knows.

Last season, Cade ranked ninth in the NBA in usage at 30.8%, meaning just under 31 of every 100 Pistons possessions ended in a Cunningham shot attempt or turnover. Everyone before Cade on that list has made an All-Star game (Doncic, Antetokounmpo, Gilgeous-Alexander, Brunson, Edwards, Curry, Fox) or is an alien ready to take over the league (Wembanyama).

Outside of Wembanyama, the difference between Cade’s usage was the individualism with which it was created. For a team that now holds the record for the longest losing streak in NBA history, there wasn’t much sophistication in the way the offense was run. There was no nice, crisp ball movement, sharp rolls and dives, movement off the ball. It was double Cade and look what happens.

What happened? A lot of. Lots of bad.

The reason I’m highlighting last season is to point out how little help Cunningham had when it came to winning basketball games. That’s not to say Cade is blameless in all of this, far from it, but anyone who saw even a little of last year’s misery could see how heavy the world was on the young man’s shoulders.

Think back to that losing streak, if you haven’t suppressed that memory yet (I’m sorry). The six games before the breakthrough were perhaps the best basketball Cade has ever played in a Pistons uniform. He averaged 31.7 points per game (including two 40-plus point explosions against Atlanta and Brooklyn) on 57% from the field, along with 7.2 assists per game.

The team didn’t win any of these games, and it became a constant theme in the series that the camera panned to Cade after another great statistical game with a big L to his name. It wasn’t exactly Tungsten Arm O’Doyle territory, but it was comical. Ironically, in that win against the Raptors, he had zero turnovers against 30 points and 12 assists.

The Pistons had a cavalcade of veterans last year who were eager to put their names on the group assignment, results be damned, and made the process sink or swim with whichever Cunningham, along with Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren and lesser mate Ausar Thompson and Isaiah Stewart could muster. It felt unfair that the reputation of young and talented players was saddled by the sheer apathy of the veterans tasked with leading them, and a coach who spent half his time on the bench playing Sudoku.

Last year created these bad habits not only in Cade, but especially in Ivey. The overdribbling, the rushing into traffic without a plan, leaving your feet and then looking for a pass. There are years lost, and then there’s whatever the past year was.

That’s why it was so important to turn the page and bring in a host of new faces to help elevate Cade and Jaden as a rising tide. It’s important to note that in their short careers, JB Bickerstaff is already the third head coach (well, if you count Monty as a coach) that both of them have had.

You see the flashes of last year when Cade attacks the baseline, and instead of kicking it across the field to a wide-open Malik Beasley or Tim Hardaway Jr., he gets a post-war flashback to the corpse of Joe Harris lying on the wing stands, and takes the has shot poorly himself, or has hit the ball away.

Not only is Cade playing with some of last year’s lingering demons, but it’s permeating the way teams still defend the Pistons. In theory, the staff has been vastly upgraded from a year ago. Beasley and Hardaway Jr are both equally advertised as shooters, Simone Fontecchio is gradually getting into the swing of things after a slow first few games, and Jaden Ivey looks like he’s making a huge leap.

But that won’t stop teams from double-teaming Cade, forcing him to make those pressure decisions, and until he slowly starts playing those double-teams, recognizes where they’re coming from, and passes the blitz, teams will continue to do this . Teams are still defending the Pistons like it’s December 2023, because while it may look like a Maserati on the outside, under the hood it’s still a Honda, and until you prove it wrong, teams will still believe it .

Passing double teams is not a concession of weakness or a white flag. In fact, not only is it a sign of respect from your opponents that they think you’re worth extra attention, but passing early can provide cleaner attacking opportunities not only for your teammates, but for yourself as well. and cuts.

Look at the evolution of Jayson Tatum. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but he has become one of the most doubled players in the club and has used that strategy to his advantage by passing early, getting rid of the ball, getting it back and tackling a shaky defense to fall.

So while there is certainly internal improvement needed on Cunningham’s side to improve as a ball handler and decision maker, dropping the anchor of last year’s disaster and relying on his teammates to make plays feels like the first logical step towards healing.

I’ve already talked about Jaden Ivey’s promising early returns in his role this year. Perhaps the only player to have it worse than Cade last year, Ivey has fared well so far under coaching that has shined a light on his rare athletic abilities instead of limiting him to an off-ball role. Not only is Ivey averaging just under 21 points per game with four assists, but he is also efficient from the floor and on fire from three assists.

Will those numbers hold up? I don’t know, but his process feels repeatable at this point and his aggressiveness has been a welcome element to the Pistons offense when it’s struggling in the halfcourt.

But outside of him, I’ve enjoyed Beasley and Hardaway Jr’s work without the ball (the latter more than I thought I would), and they’ve both shown that they can not only hit threes at a high clip and volume ( bad Beasley game last time aside), but have also been able to attack closeouts and operate in the mid-range.

The big bugbear at the moment is the form of Tobias Harris. He was brought in as a stable presence and has failed to deliver on that thus far. At this point you have to trust him to work through it. He was never going to be a scoring alpha on this team anyway, but the Pistons need more than what they’ve gotten so far.

In theory, there are more failsafes this year to salvage a stagnant Cunningham offensive possession. It’s time for Cade to forget the past and trust his teammates again.

Oh, and a friendlier whistle wouldn’t hurt either (Cade has the same FTA as Jalen Smith).